Blood of Heroes (The Ember War Saga Book 3) by Richard Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

Glue. Durand waved to get her attention.
    One of the Dotok pilots struggled down the ladder the deck crew wheeled up to his fighter. The alien’s legs quivered as it came down the steps one at a time. He set foot on the deck and fell to his knees. Durand ran to him and fumbled with the latches fixing his helmet to the rest of his suit.
    Durand got the helmet off and became the first human to get a good dose of Dotok body odor. The Dotok’s cheeks were sunken, its lips cracked and dry. He looked at Durand and made a drinking motion. He fell back against the ladder with a groan.
    “Water! Get him some water,” Durand said to the nearest crewman. She knelt next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “How long were you in the saddle, mon ami ?”
    The Dotok’s mouth smacked like a dry husk being ripped apart. A crewman handed Durand a canteen. She unscrewed the top and pressed it into his hands. The Dotok sniffed at the water, then took a tentative sip. He swallowed hard, then downed the rest of the canteen.
    “Glue, the rest of them will be like this,” she said to the Chinese pilot. “Captain needs me on the bridge. Get our birds topped off with bullets and—”
    “Gall!” The heavily accented word rang out over the din of the flight deck. A Dotok pilot stood next to Durand’s fighter, pointing at her call sign stenciled against her cockpit. The pilot looked young, almost in his late teens by human standards, his head bald but for a braid of dark hair on the back of his head.
    “I think you made a fan,” Glue said.
    “When did they learn to read English?” Durand asked. She stood up and waved to the Dotok. “I’m Gall.”
    The Dotok’s face darkened and it stomped toward Durand, pointing to her. Angry sounding words came from him as he approached. He got within a dozen feet and hurled his helmet at Durand.
    Durand brought her own helmet up and tried to block the projectile. The thrown helmet struck her fingers and sent pain shooting up her arm.
    The Dotok broke into a run, a fist raised behind his head.
    Durand backpedaled and bumped into a Dotok fighter, one hand up and her head shaking.
    The enraged alien got within arm’s reach when Glue clocked him across the jaw. His head lolled over his neck and he fell to the deck like a puppet with its strings cut.
    Dotok pilots rushed over and laid the unconscious pilot out against the deck.
    “What the hell?” Durand asked.
    “You really don’t make a great first impression, ma’am,” Glue said, her hand brushing against the thigh where Durand shot her months ago. 
    Shor pushed her way through the Dotok pilots. She slapped the prone Dotok across the face until he came to. The two locked eyes and embraced, the man crying like he’d just found a long lost child.
    “You almost killed his wife.” The mechanical tinged words came from the pilot sitting against the stairs. He had a square shaped speaker in his hand, which he raised up to his mouth and spoke. “Bar’en is ill-tempered at times. Forgive him.” The translated words came from the speaker.
    “You got a name?” Durand asked. Her words came through the speaker in Dotok.
    “Mar’tig.”
    “Martin, welcome to the Breitenfeld ,” Durand said. “You tell hothead over there he swings at me again and I’ll shoot him in the dick. I’ve got to get to the bridge and figure out how we’re going to save this planet. Excuse me.”
    Durand jogged toward the elevators and caught a dirty look from Bar’en along the way.

CHAPTER 4
     
    Stacey Ibarra floated in a white abyss, her senses starved for anything but the sound of her heart beating and the light that cast neither shadow nor heat. She replayed a pop ditty from her high school days in her head, waiting for the translation to end. It took hours for the gates between Bastion and the Crucible to deliver her from one place to the other. Timing the experience with remembered songs staved off boredom and panic.
    Weight returned to her body and the